CULTURES AND SOCIETY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The course, as part of the courses specifically related to the Languages taught in the LCSL degree course, enlarges the knowledge of the linguistic, literary and cultural heritage of Great Britain by focussing on the main characteristics of its history and its social and political culture, while – at the same time - further widening, through the reading of texts in the original language, the students’ lexical mastery of the English language.

The course investigates the characteristic features and peculiarities of British history and British social and political culture, as they have developed historically over the centuries in the wider context of European history. Students will develop their critical capacity of analysis of those phenomenons, and the consciousness of the implied social, scientific, and ethical issues. Through the analysis of the texts on the syllabus, the students’ capacity of critical understanding and judgement - in a language both specific and proper - will be enhanced, also in a larger comparative perspective involving their knowledge and experience of Italian national culture.

Advanced skills in reading texts in the English language.

Title: British Society and Culture in the Romantic Age.

The course explores the shifts that underwent from the end of the 18th century to the 1840s as a consequence of the second Industrial Revolution. During this time, the United Kingdom, as well as the rest of Europe and the United States soon after, underwent drastic socio-economic and cultural changes due to rapid urbanization and the rise of the working and middle classes. Industrialization led to prodigious technological developments, but also caused severe reductions in living standards for workers both in the United Kingdom and throughout the industrialized Western world. The Romantic Movement developed in the United Kingdom in some measure as a response to the Industrial Revolution. In the early 19th century many English writers and artists considered industrialism inhumane and unnatural and revolted against what they felt as the "mechanization of modern life".
Throughout the course we shall read poems and essays by Romantic authors that dealt with issues that are at the centre of today’s ecological crisis, concerning the relationship between nature and progress, the individual and the community, the role of art in society, the journey in the life of the individual.

- W. Wordsworth, "The Prelude"
- W. Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge, "Lyrical Ballads"
- P. B. Shelley, "Poems"
- John Keats, "Poems"
- Lord Byron, "Don Juan"

A list of critical readings will be given at the beginning of the course, books and critical essays will be available at the University library or uploaded on the Moodle platform.

* Erasmus students may refer to the lecturer if they need a different syllabus, or a syllabus in a different language

See the Moodle platform for details

Lectures, seminars and students' presentations

Italian

Students who can’t attend lessons should refer to the lecturer for additional set texts and secondary works.

further reading will be available on the moodle platform at the beginning of the module.

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